From Despair to Destiny: The Journey of Hope in Ruth | Redemption is Coming (Part 1)

Introduction

What is hope? It’s been said before that hope is powerful, in fact some believe that hope is the most powerful force in the world. Hope doesn’t change problems but hope does change perspectives! Hope provides light in darkness. Hope gives inspiration in chaos. But what exactly is hope? Most people characterize hope in one of 3 ways:

Wishful Thinking

I hope that I get a Christmas bonus

I hope that we get a White Christmas

I hope that I get an A on my final exam even though I haven’t studied

Positive Mindset

I hope that tomorrow is better than today

The Best is Yet to Come

Probability

Gabriel and I have a Christmas tradition of going to Missouri State and watching the Blue and Gold tournament as basketball and popcorn are hard to beat! Imagine your basketball team playing, and being down by 1 point, but your best player gets fouled and gets to shoot 2 free throws… you’re hopeful that you’re going to win. This is wishful thinking, sure, but it’s based on probability. They’re an 80% free throw shooter. They get 2 shots. You’re probably going to win!

These aren’t necessarily wrong definitions of hope! These aren’t bad things, either. It’s not bad to be a wishful thinker. It’s not bad to have a positive mindset. It’s not bad to look at stats whenever you make a decision! But worldly definitions of hope aren’t exactly the Word’s definition of hope. The word for hope in the New Testament shows up 53x and it brings with it a confidence in God’s power, not the power of self, or another person. So what is hope in the Bible? A strong and confident expectation in the promises of God, an unwavering trust in the unchanging character of God. As believers, we are people of great hope not because we are great or because we don’t change, but because our God is great and because He doesn’t change! This gives us incredible hope - as Hebrews 6:19-20 tells us, our hope in Christ is like an anchor, it holds fast even in the worst of storms that we face!

This morning we kick off the Christmas season - regardless of your feelings on Christmas being celebrated before Thanksgiving or not, Christmas is upon us officially. In the history of the church, this season of the year has been called Advent. Maybe that’s a word that you’re familiar with, but maybe it’s not. Advent means “arrival” or coming - and during this busy season, we gather and we pause and we remember that our Savior did come as a baby born in Bethlehem! We remember that God’s people waited genuinely thousands of years for Jesus to come and howe we have waited thousands of years now for Christ to return. We could say that we today live between the 2 Advents or arrivals of Jesus Christ! In this already, but not yet, period where Christ has already come but He has not yet returned.

As we think of this season, we all have different Christmas traditions such as celebrating with family, eating yummy food, giving gifts… but for some of you maybe this Christmas is hard because of someone who isn’t taking part in those traditions. Maybe it’s hard because of a loss or because of a fractured relationship. Maybe you’re here and you feel like Scrooge himself because of your circumstances. Maybe you feel like your hope has been zapped. Friend, I want to encourage you as we enter into the Advent season together this morning that there is hope that is available to you today.

Today and in the weeks leading up to Christmas, we’ll be studying the book of Ruth. Each week, we’ll read 1 chapter and we’ll be reminded of these Advent themes of hope, love, joy, and peace as we, just like Ruth find ourselves waiting on the arrival of the Redeemer. We know that 2000 years ago He came as a baby, but we know that one day in the future He will return as a Lion.

Let’s read from God’s Word this morning

Ruth 1 CSB

1 During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there. 3 Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband. 6 She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food. 7 She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah. 8 Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly. 10 They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, 13 would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.” 14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. 18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her. 19 The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” 22 So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Have you ever read the book of Ruth before? This is an incredible book that tells us of God’s providence or the way in which God provides for His people, and we see this even from the first chapter… We see that God has a purpose, even in rock bottom! Wherever you’re at this morning, excited or discouraged, there is hope in Jesus. Let’s pray and ask Him to help us be people of hope today

Running into Ruin (1-5)

Is it hard for anyone else to wrap your mind around the fact that December is here? This year has flown by! Lindsey and I have talked about even just the last half of the year since being voted in here at South Gate, it’s been a giant blur. Have you experienced this? The years seem to go by quicker and quicker the older we get. Students, trust me on this one, the next few weeks of school will seem to drag slower than molasses running down a roll, but the school year will be gone before you know it! Our schedules fill up, days fly by, we find ourselves in a crazy world and everyone just seems to be busy. Think of how we know this is true - you go up to someone and ask how they are doing, what do you usually hear back? I’m doing good, just busy. 60% of American adults say that they are “too busy” to enjoy life. We are obsessed with being busy and what it is doing is it’s running us into ruin as individuals and as a family. Deitrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten.”

We read from the get-go in Ruth that there is a problem. There is a famine in the land. In a modern context with supermarkets, it’s hard for us to grasp the severity of a famine like these people faced thousands of years ago… imagine going to your favorite restaurant and your favorite item on the menu isn’t available. Your next favorite isn’t available either. You keep going down the list asking for things and the waitress keeps on telling you that they’re out of all of those things. You ask, well what do you all have? She responds, “Yesterday’s leftovers.” That doesn’t sound very appetizing now, does it? This is the situation that Elimelech and Naomi are in. They are in Bethlehem but they leave to go to Moab. Do you know what Bethlehem means? The House of Bread… God’s Word is telling us that the House of Bread had no bread - this isn’t good! Times are hard. Darkness is real. Many people would say that God was bringing judgment upon His people with this famine, and that is a real possibility because Ruth 1:1 tells us that this happens during the time of the Judges.

Judges 21:25 NASB95

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The book of Judges isn’t a largely positive book. We see 7 cycles of Judgment in Judges as God’s people worship him, reject him, start to worship idols, experience his judgment, and finally repent. This happens 7 different times and we’re tempted to point the finger at them and say, “What on earth are you all doing!? Why do you keep turning away from God?” And then realization hits us as we realize that we do the exact same thing - don’t we? We worship God on Sunday, but then we’re tempted to exalt ourselves on Monday. We’re tempted to value God’s Word, but at the end of the day, we do what is right in our own eyes instead of doing what the Bible says is actually right. We too live in a Judges 21:25 world as people continue to do what is right in their own eyes as this has become the “gospel” of our day - be true to you, you do you, live your truth. What does this lead towards, though? Ruin. Judgment. Disaster.

In our passage we see that in this world where people did what was right in their own eyes, Elimelech and Naomi leave Bethlehem to go to Moab. Now, this is ironic. Moab was a different country. The people of Moab worshipped other gods. This is the place that Elimelech chooses to take his family. This man’s name means “My God is King” and he takes his family away from Israel and towards a pagan nation, in the era where people did what was right in their own eyes. He brings his teenage sons whose names mean “Sickness” and “Wasting” - this isn’t setting up to be a feel good Christmas story, is it? Famines and people with names that mean sickness and wasting? We’ve seen to have hit rock bottom… but we continue reading and see that the husband and father, Elimelech dies. Not only does he die, but the sons after 10 years of living in Moab, they too die.

This land that provided them with food and work and family for a decade has led to their ruin. This situation looks hopeless! All three women lose their husbands. Naomi is left with her two daughters in law who are Moabites. They have no children. From the outside looking in, this looks like a dire situation. Maybe this is where you find yourself at in this Christmas season. Maybe this year has presented hardships for you. Maybe you have experienced loss this year. Maybe you’re experiencing confusion as to where you are supposed to go next. Maybe you feel like you’ve just been running and running and all you feel is ruin. Can I offer some encouragement this morning? God is the same in the harvest as He is in the famine. In fact, the book of Job reminds us that God has a purpose in the famine. In the hardship. In the hopelessness. God is at work, and when God is at work, there is always reason to have hope. Friends, understand this, God has a purpose in your “famine” as well. Because of this famine, Elimelech did what was right in his eyes and moved his family to a foreign place. His family suffered much loss. But even in ruin, God has a plan.

Response and Return (6-18)

Verse 6 changes everything. Naomi hears that the famine is over and that the Lord paid attention - He heard the cries of His people - and provided them with food. This is over a decade after Naomi had left Bethlehem for Moab. This is after years of loss and pain and grief. This is after feeling what would have had to feel like rock bottom. The Lord paid attention and the Lord provided. Friend, aren’t you thankful that we serve a God who pays attention and who provides for His people? Things like famines are typically cycles. There is a time of famine and then there is a time of harvest. Think about the season that we are entering into - winter. Did you know that December 21 is the day in which we in the northern hemisphere have the least amount of sunlight? We will have over 14 hours of darkness. Sometimes it seems like the darkness will last forever… but winter doesn’t last forever. Spring showers and summer smiles shall soon appear! The famine concludes and Naomi determines to return back to Bethlehem. This seems like an obvious choice, doesn’t it? Think of the story Jesus shares in Luke 15 of the Prodigal Son

Luke 15:14–17 CSB

14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. 15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!

This son in Jesus’ story went away from the Father and squandered what he had and began to work in a pig field. He was so hungry that he longed to eat the pods that the pigs ate but then he came to his senses and determined to come back home. This is much like Naomi in Ruth 1:6 after hearing this news. I pray that this is in part your story - we all know what it’s like to live in separation from God. In darkness. In hopelessness. But I pray that you’ve experienced the joy of responding to the good news and coming home. This is what Naomi does as she learns that the House of Bread had been restocked by the Bread of Life Himself! This is good news and throughout the month of December we’ll see how God has a plan even for things that look bad.

They begin this return but Naomi stops them and tells her daughters in law to return to their homes and families. Orpah and Naomi were Moabites meaning that they did not believe in God. They were in their homeland. They were following a woman who was not their biological mother. A woman who didn’t have much to offer them as Naomi makes sure to let them know of! Yet, they followed her. They loved this woman. But we see that Orpah goes ahead and does return to her family. There isn’t anything wrong with this decision, it makes sense! Naomi has nothing. She is returning home. These women would be considered foreigners and their husbands had passed away and they had no children. This is about as hopeless as things get. Whenever our foundation gets shaken, it makes sense to fall back on what is familiar to us and this is what Orpah does… yet we see that Ruth clings to Naomi.

This astonishes Naomi and she orders Ruth to go back to her people and her gods… consider this real quick. How many gods are there? There is but 1! The least loving thing that we can do as genuine believers is to tell people to continue to live in a lie or to worship gods that are not real. But there are times in our doubt and in our despair and in our hopelessness that our feelings aren’t exactly the most accurate. As one pastor once shared, “In her present state of mind, Naomi things that Ruth can expect more from the gods of Moab than the God of Israel.” Naomi returns, but she returns with shaken faith… Ruth has never been to Israel but she responds to this situation with solid faith as she says, “Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God.” What an incredible declaration of faith! See, Ruth didn’t just come to Israel because she trusted in Naomi, she came because she trusted in Naomi’s God. She didn’t know everything, but she knew enough. Friends, regardless of where you find yourself at today, it is always appropriate to trust in the Lord. To trust in His promises. To trust in His Word. Maybe you’re here today and you used to regularly come to church. You used to follow Jesus. You used to be in the Word. But you’ve strayed from that. You’ve “gone to Moab” you could say. Return to the Lord today. Maybe you’re here though and you are much closer to Ruth and this might be the first time you’ve come to church. You might feel as though you are far away from God because you weren’t raised in a Christian home. You might not know all the right answers. You might be here and you feel hopeless… Like Ruth, you can determine to trust in the Lord and go where He is leading you to go.

Church, even in the middle of darkness and despair, God is at work!

Root of Redemption (19-22)

We’ve seen hope placed in false things as Elimelech placed his hope in a foreign place. We’ve seen hopelessness as loved ones have been lost. In this life we know that our hopes and dreams can be destroyed in the blink of an eye. This is why it is such good news that our God provides us with a Living Hope that cannot be taken away. Eternal hope in a world of earthly uncertainty. Hope even in times of tragedy!

Think about all the examples of tragedy we see in Scripture. It takes all of 2 pages in the Bible for tragedy to strike as Adam and Eve sin against God and are separated from Him. We see the first brothers in the Bible commit the first murder as Cain kills his brother Abel. We see the flood. We see idolatry. We see people reject God. And this is all in the first few chapters of the first book! The root of these problems is sin. We are sick with sin and the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. Some might live 70, 80, or 90 years on this planet, but the result of our sin is death. Along the way we experience the effects of sin like hopelessness. Bitterness. Rejection. Emptiness. Naomi talks about these things in our text - she says that she is bitter. She is empty. She is afflicted. Do you know what sin often does? Sin shifts our gaze from our Provider and onto our problem. Naomi says that she is empty… this isn’t true! She has Ruth. Naomi says that the Lord has made her bitter… bitterness is a choice. The same God who sent a famine more than a decade before is the same God who has now brought about a harvest. The one thing that Naomi gets right in verse 21 is that the Lord has brought her back. Now that’s a sermon by itself, isn’t it?

This is the story of Scripture.

Isaiah 53:6 CSB

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

At the center of Scripture stands Jesus Christ. The baby born in Bethlehem. See, God has good news coming out of Bethlehem. Naomi heard a gospel from Bethlehem, this good news was that the House of Bread once again had some bread. But there is better news out of Bethlehem today, the Bread of Life has come to the House of Bread and He offers an open invitation to the World: COME HOME.

Come home to the God who created you. Who loves you. Who alone can provide you with what you need. Come home! Come empty. Come all who are broken and bitter. Maybe you’ve been away for a few weeks, a few months, a few years, maybe most of your life. Friend, you are created by God to know God and to enjoy God and you will not find hope outside of God.

This God still provides for His people.

Job 1:21 CSB

21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

What did the Lord provide Naomi with? Ruth. What season did Naomi leave in? Famine. What season did she return in? Harvest. What did the Lord give to these women? He gave them hope. The Lord is the same today. He continues to provide. During Advent we pause and we remember God’s faithfulness. We remember that God is faithful even when His people are faithless. We remember that Jesus really did come to the earth. He really did live a sinless life. He really did take our sins upon Himself on the cross. See, the cradle in Bethlehem leads to a cross on Calvary. We live on this side of the cross! While we wait on the second coming of Jesus, we don’t wait as those who have no hope. We wait with patience because we know the end of the story.

AW Tozer once shared that your Christian hope is just as good as your Christ. Your anticipation for the future lives and dies with Jesus. This means that we have great hope. Living hope. Incredible hope.

Ruth 1 is our story, whether we know it or not. It’s the story about someone who went away but who came back home. It’s the story of someone who was far away, but who came home. Ruth 1 is a story for all of us to do the same today.

5 Reasons for Hope this Advent Season

God Rules over Creation

The Lord has brought me back. The Lord visited His people. Not luck or karma or chance - it’s God.

God Provides for His Creation

We see that the Lord provided His people with food. The Lord continues to provide for His people today!

God Has a Purpose for His Creation

God’s purpose for His creation is to glorify Himself. God’s purpose for you and me is to know Him and to enjoy Him forever.

God Will Send His Son to Restore His Creation

This is what we celebrate at Christmas - God doesn’t just love in theory… He love sin practice. He doesn’t love to a limit, He loves to the uttermost. And we see this at Christmas because God sent His Son.

The Reason for Hope is not because of who you are… it is because of WHOSE you are!

We drop the ball. We don’t always measure up. If our hope is in ourselves, then we don’t have much reason for hope! But living hope isn’t found in who we are, but in WHOSE we are. We belong to Jesus. Advent reminds us of this otherworldly hope.

God graciously gives us hope. He replaces emptiness with enjoyment. Fear with faith. Hopelessness with joy. Loneliness with love. Today you might feel like a broken pot… a broken pot isn’t able to transport anything well and maybe this is how you feel - unable to do anything good for Jesus and without hope. The hope of Christmas is that Jesus knows that we are broken and broken people are exactly the people that Jesus Christ came to save. Your brokenness is welcome at the feet of the cross because that is the place where brokenness is forever fixed. Jesus mends the broken. He uses broken people to carry the best message of all - Christian, God is big enough that He can and will use your brokenness, hurt, and suffering for His glory, the good of others, and your ultimate joy in Jesus! That’s the God that we serve. That’s the hope that He provides to us. Do you have this hope today?

If you don’t, like Ruth, the Bible has one simple message for you: Come Home! Come home to Jesus. Don’t rest in your works - they can’t be the basis for your hope. In a season of hustle and bustle, you don’t have to wrestle anymore. As one former philosopher said, “In God’s changelessness, there is Rest.” You can rest in what the Bible tells us about Jesus. He really came. He really lived a perfect life. He really died on the cross for sinners just like you and me. He really defeated death. He really is coming back.

South Gate, as people of hope, let’s look to Jesus. Let’s wait for Jesus. Let’s hope in Jesus!

JI Packer once shared that “The Christmas message is exactly that of hope for a ruined humanity. Hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of eternal glory - because at the Father’s will, Jesus became poor and was born in a stable, so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.”